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Old 10-23-2010, 08:37 AM   #11
malloyd
 
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Default Re: [Space] Baseline Universe

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Originally Posted by David Johnston2 View Post
Suppose you were going to run an (interstellar) Space game. Or in fact are.

What would your Tech Level be?
Qzgl. Or something. Mostly equivalent to 3e TL 10. Or TTL F, but I haven't run Traveller in a long time.

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Would you have spacefaring alien rivals to humanity or just genetic variants of humanity?
I've got usually got aliens, but in my usual setting both the spacefaring and rivals bits are extra assumptions. The major superhuman power with an interstellar presence isn't exactly spacefaring, since they personally travel through hyperspace, and isn't too interested in the worlds humans are anyway.

Really though, if you run it very long, you are probably going to end up with aliens - they're too much a part of the expected themes of SF games to escape it - sooner or later you, or your players, will want to do a story that requires them. And player expectations do matter to this stuff - I eventually caved in on human psi powers for that, and it probably added to the fun.

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What would be your preferred propulsion model?
Conversion drive and completely isolated hyperspace. I've tried a more realistic reaction drive, but paying close attention to fuel bogged down, or actively prevented, so many plots that I wouldn't do it again, and if you aren't going to pay close attention to fuel, what's the point in a more "realistic" fuel performance anyway. And I like the period of forced downtime in FTL, makes a good scene closer.

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How far in the future would it be?
Depends. Traveller I do in the OTU timeline, though I think it's ridiculously long. My main house campaign I mostly run in the 2400s, but there's a major war in the backstory to have smashed up technological progress.

I did that so I could have the first few colony worlds isolated long enough to have unique cultures. If I were doing it again I might go with a shorter timeframe and something else to do that. I've rather admired technobabble that does this with the earliest hyperdrives not having quite correctly solved the time-like component and some of the early colonies jumping into the distant past. Of course this does mean you need a usual horrible disaster to attempting that to explain why people don't do it in purpose.
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Old 10-23-2010, 08:40 AM   #12
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Default Re: [Space] Baseline Universe

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Originally Posted by David Johnston2 View Post
What would your Tech Level be?
I tend to TL11^ with somewhere between "safe tech" and interstellar bio/cyberpunk.


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Would you have spacefaring alien rivals to humanity or just genetic variants of humanity?
Ever since the X-Files beat aliens to death then beat their corpses back to life then beat them to death again I can't take them seriously, but biotech can get the same result for all intents and purposes given enough time. Of course, properly done I don't mind aliens, just that I need a good justification for them, especially humanoid ones. (Traveller does a nice job with them.)


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What would be your preferred propulsion model?
FTL tends to be hyperspace, with the Asimov's "it just works" that BlackLiger mentioned.

STL, either reactionless or a highly efficient reaction drive, like Total Conversion, where fuel is more of a plot device than anything the PCs worry about.

I tend to require fuel tankage, even if the ship wouldn't otherwise require it or even consume fuel in game-time for plot purposes, too. Also, I limit high-speed STL to smaller ships and FTL to larger ones.

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How far in the future would it be?
Whatever the plot demands. Usually far enough to explain the advanced technology, not too far to make current day ancient history.

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Why would be good.
I like to fit the model of popular space opera while still being generic. Plus it makes GMing easier when I don't have to keep tally of lots of little things a harder setting would demand.

Additional:

I have personal weapons either be "pew pew ray guns" (i.e. assorted energy weapons) or the Firefly style of conventional guns in space.

Spaceship weapons tend to be themed toward the interstellar nation using them, so one nation might favor particle beams, another lasers, another conventional/EM/Grav guns and yet another prefers volleys of missiles. Fighters often use modular designs and the pilot can choose the load out they prefer before flight.

I draw from Elizabeth Moon's Vatta's War idea of "sealed units" for various parts. The crew doesn't fix certain parts, they simply replace them outright, which remarkably fits how lots of people view repair work. (When I fixed a bad fuel pump recently I just replace it rather than took it apart, rewound the motor, replaced a bearing, etc.)

For space traders I like to use brutal realism with docking fees, consumables, non-PC crew pay, etc. For combat heavy games I go between "real-world" military briefings and formality and space opera realism.



Now with all that said I have an idea with TL10^ where the super science is mostly FTL and its otherwise pretty hard sci-fi with ships using external radiators, stealth is king and ship to ship combat is more The Hunt for Red October than Star Trek.
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Old 10-23-2010, 09:05 AM   #13
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Default Re: [Space] Baseline Universe

[QUOTE=David Johnston2;1067178]Suppose you were going to run an (interstellar) Space game. Or in fact are.

I would run a facsimile of the background used in the GURPS Ultra Tech chapter lead-ins.... it's pretty high and has super science. Intriguing for GMs to handle the unique issues a super science society makes (Sentient AIs, backpack antimatter bombs, cloning).

What would your Tech Level be? That would be 12^

Would you have spacefaring alien rivals to humanity or just genetic variants of humanity? Aliens aplenty

What would be your preferred propulsion model? Some fast FTL model or jump gate system to facilitate rapid transit over massive interstellar and intergalactic distances. If sped of communication limited to speed of transit (and the transit is relatively slow, you would have Traveller's Imperium).

How far in the future would it be? Far enough to "justify" super science and societal change.

Why would be good. Lots of options for players and thought-provoking for player and GM alike. How much of the issues we see in the world today would be different as a result of super science at a high tech? What new issues arise? Even wars will be fought differently when the possibility of vehicles with conversion beams or troops with disintegrators are considered[/

Last edited by ImperialOne; 10-23-2010 at 09:12 AM.
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Old 10-23-2010, 10:49 AM   #14
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Default Re: [Space] Baseline Universe

Quote:
Originally Posted by David Johnston2 View Post
Suppose you were going to run an (interstellar) Space game. Or in fact are.

What would your Tech Level be?
Late 9 for humans (early nanotech and AI disasters have retarded development in those areas), early 10 for most aliens. Although human physicists continue to claim that gravity control is "right around the corner", spin gravity is still used for long duration space vessels and stations.
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Originally Posted by David Johnston2 View Post
Would you have spacefaring alien rivals to humanity or just genetic variants of humanity?
Aliens are known but not common. While health oriented genmods are common, environmentally adaptive ones are not. (the meme is "We don't need to make aliens of our own people.")
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Originally Posted by David Johnston2 View Post
What would be your preferred propulsion model?
As a long time fan of Babylon 5 I've always been fascinated by their "Jumpgate" technology, which in GURPS terms most closely resembles a Jump Gate described on page 19 of GURPS Spaceships. The main differences between GURPS and Babylon 5 hyperspace seem to be;
  1. the need to "open a jumppoint" to enter and exit hyperspace,
  2. the ability to loiter at the same relative position to the nearest strong gravity well in normal space without power (subject to gravitic drift), and
  3. the ability to detect other ships and maneuver relative to them and fixed hyperspace landmarks (ie. "jumpgate beacons").
Hyperspace Physics
As the above characteristics seemed to make dramatic sense in Babylon 5, I decided to incorporate some of them in my personal hyperspace rule set, with a few variations.
  • It is impossible to enter hyperspace where the gravitational stress on normal space is greater than 0.0001G. In the Sol system, this occurs at 2.45 AU or 1,223 light-seconds from the sun. This minimum safe distance (known as the "hyperlimit") can be found for other systems by multiplying the above numbers by the mass (in solar units) of the nearest star. A planet's hyperlimit (which need only be calculated for worlds that orbit outside the star's hyperlimit) is
    1. 100 earth radii times its mass (in Earth units) or,
    2. 50 times its diameter times the square root of its surface gravity in Gs
    from its core.
  • Sensor range is reduced in hyperspace, giving a -2 penalty to all active or passive sensor rolls. While the range of radio communications is similarly affected, even at interplanetary distances there is no time lag detected; the speed of light in hyperspace is close to infinity (thus relativity does not apply).
  • The gravitational fields of stars shunt a small portion of their energy into hyperspace. While the range of detection is relatively short (no stars beyond thirty parsecs can be detected), this does provide a simple method for hyperspace astrogation. (Note: the apparent radius of a star in hyperspace is its hyperlimit.)
  • When a sensitive observatory was set up in hyperspace to extend this range, certain odd transitory signals were detected in the neighborhood of several of these stars. At first this puzzled the astronomers, but the mystery was quickly solved when a technician noticed that the profile of these signals exactly matched the one generated by a Hypergate when it opens and closes.
  • A vessel entering or leaving hyperspace creates an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) in both universes, adding the vessel's SM to any sensor rolls to detect the event. This pulse is too brief to detect at interstellar distances.
  • Direct realtime communication between normal space and hyperspace is impossible except through an open Hypergate, and even that requires a lasercom because the boundry effects of the event horizon scramble any radio signals. Because of this, some high traffic systems might find it more efficient to have two Hypergate stations; one in normal space for outgoing traffic and one in hyperspace for incoming ships. Military hypergates may be built in hyperspace to watch for approaching vessels.
  • When a ship jumps back to normal space near an open hypergate, the power requirements of the requirements of each goes down for a moment. For one second (the length of the ship's jump to normal space) the energy consumed is multiplied by d/(d+r) where d is the distance between the ship and the event horizon of the gate on the hyperspace side, and r is the radius of the gate. This is called the Proximity Effect.

Hyperjump Rules
The general characteristics of Stardrives and Jump Gates used in this setting are as follows:
  1. The minimum size of a vessel that can jump to hyperspace on its own is 10,000 tons (SM+10). This is also the minimum capacity of a stable Jump Gate requiring a minimum of one SM+13 system.
  2. The base FTL-1 velocity (or "hyperspeed") of a Stardrive (also known as a Hyperjump Engine) in hyperspace is 0.2 parsecs/day. Ships too small to enter/exit hyperspace on their own (SM+9 or smaller) may do so through a Jump Gate (see below). Other names used for the Stardrive system are Jumpdrive or Hyperdrive depending on whether the ship is or is not Jump capable.)
  3. For some odd reason, newtonian reaction drives do not work in hyperspace, so Rotary Reactionless Drives (known as "thrusters") are required for hyperspace STL manuvering. Since these drives cannot be used at the same time as the Stardrive, power can be diverted from one to the other. Ships using neither drive system remain stationary relative to normal space (see item "b" above).
  4. Ships at hyperspeed cannot adjust their heading directly, so the ship must disengage the Hyperjump Engine, adjust the ship's heading with thrusters, then re-engage the Hyperjump Engine on the new heading to make course corrections.
  5. Hyperjump Engines SM+13 or larger may be designed to be reconfigured into Jump Gate systems so that hyperspace capable auxilary vessels may be used.
  6. Hyperspace Jump Gates (usually called Hypergates) open a "door" to hyperspace 0.5x(square root of total tonnage capacity) yards in diameter. The gate must recharge for 60 minutes between uses and will remain open for two minutes or until a mass exceeding its rated capacity attempts to pass through it (whichever is less). Multiple gate systems in the same ship/station may operate independently at staggered times to allow a smoother traffic flow.
  7. Because of the Proximity Effect, the closer a ship is to an active Hypergate in normal space (ie. d<0) when it jumps to hyperspace, the more power it will take. Fortunately this is fairly easy to avoid, as the gate is only active for two minutes out of every hour. What would happen if a ship tried to jump in normal space between event horizon and gate radius (ie. -r<d<0) isn't clear, but best estimates indicate the energy released would destroy both ship and gate ... a real "bonehead maneuver" unless you want to use a "fireship" to destroy an enemy gate.
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Originally Posted by David Johnston2 View Post
How far in the future would it be?
Early to mid 22nd century.
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Originally Posted by David Johnston2 View Post
Why would be good.
"Breakout" occurred in the middle of the 21st century when the development of Rotary Reactionless Drive led to the discovery of hyperspace and the construction of the first Hypergate Station. I'm thinking of using the attempted invention of a "radiation screen" (modelled as a "drive field" effect of the thrusters) as the new starting point to my Hyperverse tech sequence (radiation screen => hyperdynamic field grid => rotary reactionless drive => "hypersink" cloaking => jump gate to hyperspace => hyperjump stardrive). If anyone is interested, I can post a more detailed timeline later. ;)

Dalton "who has a few ships on the drawing board" Spence

Last edited by DaltonS; 11-01-2010 at 11:23 AM. Reason: Added a few details
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Old 10-23-2010, 11:02 AM   #15
Crakkerjakk
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Default Re: [Space] Baseline Universe

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Originally Posted by David Johnston2 View Post
What would your Tech Level be?
TL10, with some experimental TL 11 stuff. Superscience limited to FTL. Some alien races would have fully developed TL 11 in limited fields, and there'd be TL 12 precursor relics scattered around.

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Originally Posted by David Johnston2 View Post
Would you have spacefaring alien rivals to humanity or just genetic variants of humanity?
Both, and genetic variants of the aliens too. Probably about 7 races in total, each with about 10-20 genetically modified templates. Non-spacefaring aliens would be all over the place as well, mostly of the unintelligent variety. Basically, every borderline-habitable planet will have some form of life.

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Originally Posted by David Johnston2 View Post
What would be your preferred propulsion model?
Reaction drives for in-system, jump gates for instantaneous FTL between heavily industrialized systems, and slower (but still FTL) warp drives that don't work too close to large gravitational fields for exploration.

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Originally Posted by David Johnston2 View Post
How far in the future would it be?
An undetermined amount. Humanity would be recovering from a dark age, stumbling across relics of a previous age of human exploration, as well as mysterious precursor artifacts.
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Old 10-23-2010, 12:05 PM   #16
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Default Re: [Space] Baseline Universe

Quote:
Originally Posted by David Johnston2 View Post
Suppose you were going to run an (interstellar) Space game. Or in fact are.

What would your Tech Level be?
TL 10 hard science, except for the traversable wormholes.

Quote:
Originally Posted by David Johnston2 View Post
Would you have spacefaring alien rivals to humanity or just genetic variants of humanity?
Aliens are fun. One neat thing about using traversable wormholes with hard science is that it naturally leads to a way to encounter spacefaring aliens at about the same level of development while also satisfying the Fermi paradox.

And there will also be genetically modified humans. And uplifted animals.

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Originally Posted by David Johnston2 View Post
What would be your preferred propulsion model?
Most of the travel takes place along the primary wormhole network, which due to causality constrains forms a branching tree-like structure with a world at each node. Travel along the network involves taking a tram-line or just walking through the wormholes. To get the wormholes in place, use a linac for the initial launch, then steer them with a high powered laser as a photon rocket, and aerobrake them at the destination. In some sense, the wormhole is the spacecraft, you just get to leave all the crew and equipment back home.

In the far reaches of human expansion, it is difficult to go all the way down the wormhole network to the root note and then back up to travel to someplace that is relatively nearby. To prevent causality violations (which are bad) you could connect the two nearby places with a wormhole, but you need to keep a large separation between the wormholes - an interplanetary separation. To get between planets that cut across the network in this fashion, you would take a laser lift launch or beanstalk elevator ride, then catch a fusion pulse "torch" drive to the outer regions of the solar system where the wormhole waits. Pass through the wormhole, and into the outer reaches of your destination solar system. Rocket in to orbit around the destination planet and take a beanstalk ride or re-entry shuttle back down.

I would primarily focus on planetary action, rather than space opera, so the method of propulsion is more background color.

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How far in the future would it be?
Indeterminate. After the collapse of the Terran Empire, the far flung outposts of man are picking themselves back up and starting to explore again. This lets me have a setting where the major players can be powerful developed worlds in their own right, rather than an earth hegemony over developing colonies.

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Old 10-23-2010, 12:08 PM   #17
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Default Re: [Space] Baseline Universe

I think the idea of a higher tech precursor race has been done to death.
I would like to play a paleo-xenologist studying lower tech remains... with the occasional, "why didn't we think of that" oddity.
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Old 10-23-2010, 12:12 PM   #18
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I'd go with TL12^. Hey, I bought GURPS Ultra-Tech, I might as well get my money's worth. When else am I gonna use all those toys?
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Old 10-23-2010, 12:15 PM   #19
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Default Re: [Space] Baseline Universe

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I'd go with TL12^. Hey, I bought GURPS Ultra-Tech, I might as well get my money's worth. When else am I gonna use all those toys?
Absolutely. Just because one society in the campaign has that, doesn't mean you can't play an impoverished primitive just barely eking out a living with only Star Trek the next generation technology. ;)
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Old 10-23-2010, 12:25 PM   #20
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Default Re: [Space] Baseline Universe

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Originally Posted by Flyndaran View Post
I think the idea of a higher tech precursor race has been done to death.
I would like to play a paleo-xenologist studying lower tech remains... with the occasional, "why didn't we think of that" oddity.
Meh, tropes and cliches only become so because they're effective shorthand and thematic tools. Course, my precursor races wouldn't have created other intelligent races, they'd just leave behind TL 12^ artifacts and the occasional death trap.
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